It took a couple of hours before I saw the "Foot hills ranch" to realize that after 2.5 months of mountains, and some flat areas, but mostly mountains, I am now heading to 'flatland'.
I was planning to go east via the Pine Ridge reservation, but was warned not to because there is only one store along the way and I may not find water for dozens of miles. So I headed south.
Since I was on a highway, I decided to camp within a small town, Buffalo Gap (pop. 180). Typically, such small towns in South Dakota are lucky to have a store. This place has a pub. It was about 8:00 p.m. closing at 9:00 p.m. I ordered a Pizza which I shared with a young farmer, one of three customers at the pub other than me. He, as all ranch workers, does any type of job on the ranch. Fixing fences, branding cows (ouch), fixing equipment and whatever needs done.
So the publican is making singes that it is almost 9:00 p.m., but to his dismay, perhaps, the newly wed mayor (one of the local carpenters) and his wife drive up to the pub. She was raised here and left years ago while he moved a few years ago from Oregon to this small town since Oregon was to noisy....go figure. One one of her visits they met and she left no more. Romantic. He talks about turning the place around and making it as exciting as it used to be years ago. I got his permission to use the community center's lawn for setting up my camp. Lights went off at 10:00 p.m. we were essentially kicked out.
The rest of the way south towards Nebraska, and then in Nebraska was hilly and easy to ride.
As one can see, it is mostly flat and nothing significant to see. The second photo bellow was taken just after the first one. It got me thinking about how different we claim that we treat animals. PC or a real change?
More about Nebraska soon.....
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